I Like Josh Hamilton More Than Ever

« 1 2 View All»

Despite growing up going to church and also being someone who loves sports, I’ve never felt any extra fondness for athletes simply because they expressed a measure of faith. I liked players more when I saw interesting features about their lives, or when people told stories that cast these superstars as nice, regular people, but almost never simply because they said they were Christians.

So naturally, I didn’t blink when I heard about Josh Hamilton.

But Josh Hamilton did catch my attention in July 2008. Not just mine in fact, but all of Major League Baseball’s as well. It was All-Star Weekend, in Yankee Stadium no less, and all eyes were on Hamilton as he made fans out of all who were watching him. Hamilton set a record for HR’s in a round during the Home Run Derby, with a first round total of 28, including several over 500 feet. (you can watch the video here)

In the ESPN broadcast, they spoke frequently of Hamilton’s story. It was then I got a brief glimpse into Hamilton’s life, and his faith. He was addicted to drugs, they said, but now he’s in the big leagues. They talked mostly about how difficult it would be to be out of baseball for 3 years and still come back to hit major league pitches. They spoke of Hamilton’s talent, not so much of his redemption. Recently, I read Hamilton’s book, Beyond Belief, to hear the full details of his road back to the big leagues.

Hamilton, a 1^st overall pick in the 1999 draft, was blessed with incredible size and strength, and you-have-to-see-to-believe skills. He grew up a homebody in North Carolina, preferring to hang out with his brother and parents rather than schoolmates, always conscious of staying out of trouble.

At the 1999 draft, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays brass, who held the number one pick,  had a tough decision to make. Do they take the all-world outfielder Hamilton, thought to be the best prospect out of high school since Mickey Mantle? Or do they opt for a young man from Texas, a gun-slinger of a pitcher named Josh Beckett?

The difference, so the story goes, was the fact Hamilton was considered to have impeccable character. Beckett had an attitude, and since talent was a push, the Rays gladly made Hamilton their man.

As far as expectations go, the two Joshs could have been considered equals. Their stories though, couldn’t be more different. All Josh Beckett did when he got to the Majors was dominate. Already with two World Series rings (including the WS MVP in 2003 with the Marlins), Beckett has cemented a legacy around Major League Baseball as a big-game pitcher.

Hamilton’s road to the majors was considerably rockier. His parents came with him to A-ball, and he spent nearly all his free time with them. Eventually, the Rays brass felt Hamilton was being smothered, and his parents left for North Carolina, leaving Hamilton on his own for the first time in his life.

A series of injuries left the 19-year-old millionaire with little to do. Those were the circumstances that led Josh Hamilton to a Florida tattoo parlor. He eventually befriended the staff, and went out with them.  In that one night out, he entered a strip club for the first time, tried his first beer, tried his first several beers, and snorted cocaine.

What followed is maddening and compelling, understandable and yet completely  perplexing. Hamilton became a drug addict, and over the next four years, as drugs pulled him further and further away from reality, Boy Wonder, the Number One Draft Pick, lost nearly everything.

It was in a spell of sobriety he married his wife Katie. They had a child, Sierra, shortly after they were married. Three days after Sierra was born, Katie sent Josh to get a prescription filled. He didn’t come back.

His cocaine binges worsened.  He eventually met a couple that turned him on to crack, and he was addicted almost immediately. At one point, he pawned his wife’s wedding ring as collateral for drugs.

Think of paralells in the other sports: this would be like Peyton Manning becoming an addict, or Sidney Crosby, or Lebron James. People that are extra-terrestially talented aren’t supposed to almost lose it all. Hamilton, the ‘sure thing’ in his sport, came frighteningly close.

But the story gets better. Hamilton moves in with his grandmother, and begins to get clean. Relying on prayer and a relationship with Jesus Christ, slowly and surely, Hamilton puts his life back together.

Incredibly, Hamilton makes his way back to the big leagues. From waking up on the floor of a trailer, home to crack dealers he barely knew, to the Cincinnati Reds. He was assigned a ‘special assignment coach’ Johnny Narron, whom he knew from childhood. Narron’s job was to look out for Hamilton, to be his accountability while on the road with the team. The system worked. After a strong rookie season in Cincinnati, Josh was acquired by the Texas Rangers, and became an All-Star in 2008.

Which is how he ended up at Yankee Stadium in July, adding his exclamation mark to the festivities by hammering those 28 home runs in the 1^st round. And though he would lose the contest to Justin Morneau, no one remembers the winner. They remember only the moment, only the prodigal hero.

In retrospect, that is when I should have first written about Hamilton. He is an outspoken Christian who also happens to be a fantastic athlete. He is Tim Tebow with skeletons in his closet.  He’s Doc Gooden with salvation.  He’s a perfect talent, who is so far from perfect. I should have written about forgiveness and redemption, and how no matter how bad things get, God proves that with Him, we can overcome anything.

The problem is, my heart wasn’t in a place where I could relate to that experience. I struggle to digest concepts like forgiveness and grace; they register in my brain but get lost on their way to my heart. I could have put together an article about Josh Hamilton, but deep down I know it wouldn’t have been very good.

« 1 2 View All»